Mrs. Ivanna Kushpeta

Obituary

Ivanna Kushpeta (nee Krajnyk) passed away peacefully at home with her daughters by her side on July 28, 2025 at the age of 99. She was predeceased by her husband Mykola Kushpeta, sisters Melania Mazurenko, Sonia Durkot, and siblings Olha and Yaroslav who died early in life. 

The cherished mother of Halyna (Mykhaylo Buba) and Zenia, loving grandmother to Melania and Tatiana (Bevan Hughes), she will be remembered fondly as “Teta Dzidzia” by nieces Lydia Lebed, Irka Pavliuc, Renata Durkot, Lidusia Whistance-Smith, and their families.

Ivanna was born in 1926 in Lisko, near Sianok in Western Ukraine. The third of 5 children of Dmytro and Anhelyna Krajnyk, she spent most of her childhood and teen years in Przemysl, presently Poland. During the devastating horrors of World War II, Ivanna and her family were forced to flee first to Sudetenland (Czech Republic) and continued on to Germany. At the young age of 19 she married Mykola Kushpeta, a young activist and her math tutor.

In 1945, leaving her loved ones behind, together with her husband Mykola, the young couple arrived in Innsbruck, Austria where they both attended Leopold University. Mykola earned his PhD in Political Science, while Ivanna interrupted her studies welcoming the birth of their first child Halyna in 1947. Displaced from their homeland, the young family sailed to Canada in 1948, settling in Port Arthur (today’s Thunder Bay) where in 1952, their second daughter Zenia was born. Shortly thereafter they moved to Toronto, beginning a new, more hopeful chapter in their lives.  

Ivanna and Mykola became active parishioners of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Toronto. Their devotion and pride in their native Ukraine was unwavering. From the 1950s onwards, they immersed themselves in Toronto’s growing Ukrainian emigré community, feeling a great sense of responsibility to volunteer and contribute to its development and growth. Ivanna became a member of several Ukrainian volunteer organizations, including the League of Ukrainian Women and Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League. She served as the executive director of Ukrainian Canadian Social Services and executive secretary of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations. She was also one of the founding members of the Ukrainian Music Festival in Toronto.

Ivanna’s love of art and music gave her much joy and inspired her to enroll in art courses at the Ontario College of Art and later participate in several solo and group art exhibits. Her floral subjects—especially her watercolour paintings of poppies and sunflowers—graced several residences in the community. With her sisters, Melania and Sonia, she continued to sing and play the piano well into her senior years at many joyful and music-filled family reunions.

Ivanna was a kind, generous person of gentle spirit who loved her family, her Church and her native Ukraine. Together with her husband Mykola, they did everything to encourage their daughters to grow in their faith and be proud of their Ukrainian heritage. Ivanna genuinely loved to support others and to help those in need. We are so grateful for the gift of her precious life! She will be remembered with affection by many, and forever deeply loved and missed by her family and friends.

Вічна Їй пам’ять!

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Ivanna Kushpeta can be made to Canada Ukraine Foundation for Dzherelo Rehab Centre in Lviv (CUF - Dzherelo) 

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/67782?v1=true

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